HOLY SMOKES. March was a busy month and the crypto market / industry seems to only be warming up! 2021 is going to be a historic year.
March Summary:
- 3/15 – The Oakland Athletics will accept Bitcoin as payment AND will hold it on their balance sheet.
- 3/15 – Avanti (a crypto bank) closes $37M Series A financing round for a total of $44M.
- 3/24 – Fidelity files for Bitcoin ETF.
- 3/24 – American Airlines arena (home of Miami Heat) to be renamed FTX Arena.
- 3/24 – Tesla now accepts Bitcoin as payment AND will hold it on their balance sheet.
- 3/26 – Microsoft Builds ION Decentralized Identifier Network on top of Bitcoin blockchain.
- 3/29 – Texas Governor Greg Abbott signals Texas will be a Crypto industry leader.
- 3/29 – Visa Starts Settling Transactions in USD Coin on the Ethereum blockchain.
- 3/30 – Paypal Allows Users to Use their Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum for Purchases
Oakland Athletics Accepting and Holding Bitcoin
The Oakland Athletics are now accepting Bitcoin as payment for luxury suite season tickets (starting at $64,000 if anyone is interested!). This is pretty cool, but not nearly as exciting as the 2nd part of this announcement: they will NOT sell this Bitcoin back into US dollars, but will hold it on their balance sheet as Bitcoin. HUGE news! If the price continues to climb expect other teams to adopt this strategy. The A’s are known as trend setters – especially with their use of sabermetrics as seen in Moneyball.
Avanti close $37M Series A for a total of $44M.
Avanti, a crypto bank, finished their last round of fundraising to launch their digital banking services. CEO Caitlin Long, an incredibly experience finance professional, leads the charge with a war chest of investors, products, and capital. Avanti Bank products include digital banking, Avit (a tokenized, programmable US dollar), custodian services, digital asset conversion, escrow, and FX. Avanti is also one of only a few crypto banks to receive a bank charter from the Wyoming State Banking Board.
Fidelity files for Bitcoin ETF
Holy. Smokes. This is HUGE news. Many firms have submitted Bitcoin ETF applications before, but Fidelity is one of the most trusted, connected, and experienced brands in the financial services industry. If this happens, and many expect it will eventually, it will allow an incredible amount of capital to stream into the crypto industry (Bitcoin specifically) in a very trusted, legacy finance kind of way. It will be very easy for the wealthiest investors to allocated small %s of their portfolios into this asset class in a way that hasn’t been possible before.
This is a game changer and will be one of the biggest moves to make cryptocurrency mainstream and accessible. Check out the application, here.
American Airlines Arena renamed to FTX Arena
Do you want mainstream adoption proof? The Miami Heat, an actual NBA team, are changing the name of their home to FTX Arena! FTX is a crypto exchange (one of our favorites, read review here) that is rapidly growing and continuing to expand their presence in North America. This is a power move and will bring a ton of attention to the crypto industry.
Tesla Accepting and Holding Bitcoin
Tesla bought $1.5B (yes, that’s a ‘B’) worth of Bitcoin to replace cash on their balance sheet. What else can they do?! How about accept Bitcoin as payment, commit to holding that Bitcoin instead of sell it, and are now running their own Bitcoin nodes. Goodness.
Consider this – Elon Musk is one of the most intelligent, forward-looking, and wealthy investors and technologists in the world. Do you think he knows what he’s doing? If you don’t own any Bitcoin, what does he know that you don’t know? Get started here.
Elon Musk also owns three other private companies: The Boring Company, SpaceX, and Neuralink. Do you think Tesla is the only one holding Bitcoin on its balance sheet? No way.
Microsoft Building ION on top of Bitcoin Blockchain
Microsoft is building decentralized identities through ION (Identity Overlay Network) on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Microsoft is one of the most trusted, well known brands in the world and they are building on top of Bitcoin. This in itself is huge news. This technology creates digital credentials connected to individual identities. Check out the below video for more info:
Texas Governor Greg Abbott Wants Crypto in Texas
And so it begins. States (primarily Wyoming, Florida, and Texas) are competing against each other to be crypto technology hubs. Governor Abbott said he wants Texas to be a leader and encourages the Texas legislature to pass clear and unrestrictive laws that provide guidelines to attract crypto entrepreneurs. Unreal.
Texas is trying to catch up to Wyoming and Florida to become a cryptocurrency leader in the United States. It’s necessary politicians to be champions of the industry to pass laws that encourage crypto innovation and research. Wyoming (Senator Cynthia Lummis), Florida (Mayor Francis Suarez), and Texas (Governor Greg Abbott) have their champions.
Momentum will only accelerate in these areas, and every single state will have to move quickly as we see real life Game Theory play out. Every law, politician, company, and state that embraces Bitcoin and cryptocurrency make it significantly harder to pass laws that hinder its price and development. The genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going back in.
Visa Starts Settling Transactions in USD Coin on the Ethereum blockchain.
What are we missing? Tesla, Texas, the Oakland athletics, Fidelity, and Microsoft all getting into cryptocurrencies and blockchain. How about Visa – possibly the biggest brand in transactional finance. Well, Visa is now experimenting with settling transactions in USD Coin on the Ethereum blockchain.
Wait, what?! Why would a major financial transactor and intermediary want to work with crypto? Open source, decentralized networks are more efficient, cheaper, and upgradable. Legacy finance must adapt or die – Visa recognizes this and is making a move to adapt.
Paypal Allows Users to Use their Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum for Purchases
Paypal has started to allow their customers to checkout at online retailers using Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum. Paypal already allowed their users to buy, hold, and sell certain cryptocurrencies, but now they are able to use them to buy goods and services at 29 million Paypal supported online businesses. The merchant does not receive crypto as it is immediately transformed and received as fiat.
Paypal isn’t done with cryptocurrencies and looks to become a leader in this industry. Adapt or die!
March, right?!
It’s been quite a year for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry already, and March may have been the biggest month yet. We expect many more companies to announce they have added Bitcoin to their balance sheet as the Microstrategy Bitcoin Conference was held about a month ago and attendance was very impressive. It’s likely many of these companies are still making scheduled micro-purchases to keep the price stable, and won’t announce until they’re finished.
A lot of the news from this month sets groundwork for future moves: Texas, Visa, Microsoft, Avanti, and the Oakland A’s aren’t going to impact the price and development right away, but sets the industry up for massive moves in the future. Once again, if you haven’t gotten into Bitcoin / crypto you should ask yourself, ‘why?’. The brightest minds in tech, government, sport, and finance are all jumping into it. Why not you? You owe it to yourself to continue researching, growing your mental capital, and getting off of zero.
We’re here to help. The 5 links below are where we encourage you to start. Onward!
What is Bitcoin? Part 1 – Origins
What is Bitcoin? Part 2 – Technology